I currently live out of state and am a junior in high school, but I am interested in multiple UC's, University of Miami, Princeton, Columbia and Brown. Since the rest of the schools are private, hard to get into (minus U Miami, which I don't even like very much,) I feel as though it is most likely that I will go to a UC. My parents have paid around $45,000 a year for the past 6 years for me to go to boarding school, and I don't want to run there money out anymore.

Will it save for my parents money for them to buy a small apartment in CA (I could use it to work over summer and during breaks if I don't want to go back home,) and to pay in-state tuition then to pay out of state tuition? Which makes more sense? And when will they have to buy (or maybe rent) this apartment if I want to pay in-state tuition Fall 2012?

I currently live out of state and am a junior in high school, but I am interested in multiple UC's, University of Miami, Princeton, Columbia and Brown. Since the rest of the schools are private, hard to get into (minus U Miami, which I don't even like very much,) I feel as though it is most likely that I will go to a UC. My parents have paid around $45,000 a year for the past 6 years for me to go to boarding school, and I don't want to run there money out anymore.

Will it save for my parents money for them to buy a small apartment in CA (I could use it to work over summer and during breaks if I don't want to go back home,) and to pay in-state tuition then to pay out of state tuition? Which makes more sense? And when will they have to buy (or maybe rent) this apartment if I want to pay in-state tuition Fall 2012?

Residency is established after 1 year of provable living in Ca. Usually that takes a drivers license, state ID card, lease agreement, utility bill in your name withe the California address on it.

If you get a studio or 1 bedroom condo it would be cheaper in the long run, only for the fact that when you graduate you can recoupe that money by selling the condo. That's not an option if you live in a dorm or rent an apartment.

EDIT UPDATE:WOW! I was blown away by Maliboo's answer. I did not realize that the UC system had boarded up the windows of opportunity like that! I was always a resident, but had many out of state friends and relatives go to school in California. They never had to jump through the kinds of hoops that are facing kids today. All they had to do is prove they lived here for a year. It was a piece of cake for them. I guess those days are long gone.

But if you are an illegal alien, the democrats in California will waive the year and immediately let you pay in state tuition with aid.

Nice for them huh? Sucks to be a citizen from another state.

While there is a one year residency rule (it's more complicated than just living here), it really doesn't count if they believe you moved out here with the intent to go to college, that automatically prevents you from being a resident for tuition purposes. And unless you got a job starring in a TV show, no one is going to believe that you moved out here to live and work at Starbucks and not attend college (especially after prep boarding school) and then the idea of going to a UC just popped in your head. No way.

Look at the UCLA or other UC website, basically it is impossible for a typical undergrad to become a resident for tuition purposes for any of the 4 undergrad years unless your parent lives in CA, or you all lived here when you turned 18, and then they moved, but you didn't. Just the fact that you intend for your parents to rent/buy an apartment for you means you couldn't qualify for residency. You must be totally financially independent, and the UC's do extensive checks.

They are going to be even more strict about residency now because of the bad financial state the UCs are in -- and they want that extra $22,000+ a year. So much so, that the admit rate for non-residents is higher than for residents -- at UCLA 22% vs 33%, Berkeley 24% vs 34%. It didn't use to be like that, but they want that extra $88,000+ big time, they are recruiting non-resident students to attend.

On the front page of UCLA's Prospective Students website:"Residence for Tuition Purposes at UCLANote: The financial independence requirement makes it extremely difficult for most undergraduate students whose parents are not California residents, including students from community colleges and other post-secondary institutions within California, to qualify for classification as a resident at the University of California. Transfer students who were classified as residents of California at their previous school should not assume that they will be classified as residents at UCLA."url_not_allowed.admissions.ucla.edu/infoprospective.htm

The UC's generally just aren't worth paying non-resident tuition for, when you can attend a private college for about the same cost, and perhaps get better financial aid or scholarships, even if your parents are over the financial limit, there may be something. Speak to your school counselor about this, the UC's have really fallen out of favor for top private school students locally, your counselor should be able to explain to you why. If you have the grades and SAT score, look at some of the lesser Ivies, like Cornell, their admit rate is around 19%, Harvard's is around 7%. (Brown's admit rate has gone down to 9% in recent years, apps up about 70%, probably due to Emma Watson, at least that's my son's theory, lol. It was the most popular Ivy with grads at my son's school last year and this.) Of course, the applicant pools are much more competitive than the UC's, but worth giving a shot.

I agree that Maliboo is being a little convservative with her answer. But the thing is you can't be attending school when you are getting your residency. So it really takes 2 years of living in CA before you can start school. One year living and supporting yourself. Then you apply for school in Nov and start the following Sept.

To answer Tom's question, 15 years ago, UC tuition was nothing. In state students were paying $2000 a year and out of state students were paying around $8000. This out of state tuition was less than most state's in-state tuition cost so it was no big deal for student to be out of state. They paid it and that was that.

On a side note. If your parents have been paying $45000 for private school for you, my guess is that they have also been investing for your college tuition. Many of these types of investments must still be used for an education, so if you don't use it, it has to pass to someone else who is going to use it for education. (Your parents may not get the cash back). Talk to them about how the family plans to pay for your college. You might be pleasantly surprised to learn, the best option is to use money that has already been invested for that purpose.